Producers of the Ozarks Plateau

As spring approaches, I get to enjoy my favorite part of the job--visiting farms. Last week was an especially nice trip to the Central Ozarks, where I toured two farms of members of a newly-formed cooperative.

Since last Fall, Farm to Family Naturally has been working with the Producers of the Ozarks Plateau as they formed a new cooperative. Not that they needed much help. This group has really got it goin'. Throughout the winter months, the members met and formed their cooperative, wrote their bylaws and worked on their relationship with Farm to Family so we could help them market their products. Various members of the cooperative will be growing all types of produce as well as sustainably-grown meats and dairy products.

Producers include Jeff Johnston (the co-op president) and his wife, Tammy, who own Suncrest Farms.

Jeff and Tammy spent the winter building a beautiful greenhouse to use for growing seedlings and also to grow a steady supply of microgreens for Sappington Farmers Market. The greenhouse is managed organically and sustainably, with liquid kelp and fish emulsion as fertilizer. So far, the healthy plants have shown no pest or disease problems. If they do, Tammy plans to use a spray of soap and eucalyptus oil. Microgreens are available starting this week (first week of April) at SFM.

Tammy has a strong interest in herbs and flowers, and experience working at a local greenhouse as well as at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Jeff is a successful contractor who would like to devote more of his life to developing the farm the couple purchased several years ago when they moved to the Ozarks from Texas.

In addition to an in-depth tour of the greenhouse, Jeff and Tammy showed me their blackberry patch and their garlic patch. They plan to expand both of those projects next year. The garlic patch is for trialing different varieties of garlic so they can determine which are the most successful. The blackberry patch is wildly successful and there are plans to expand as soon as possible.

Later, we drove to some leased land where Jeff has already planted several acres of potatoes. Watch for Jeff's sustainably-grown potatoes in the late summer in the produce department at SFM.

As the weather warms, the Johnstons will plant summer crops of tomatoes, squash and sweet potatoes. They and the other co-op members plan to fill the SFM truck to the brim once a week so we can offer all their products in the store and in our CSA.

All their produce is sure to be of the highest quality because Jeff and Tammy have the expertise and motivation to succeed at sustainable farming. In addition, they have brought together some of the best small, independent farmers in the Ozarks with beef, lamb, goat, dairy products and more produce.

This joint venture brings us full circle with some of our meat producers as well.

Watch for my next blog, where you can tour the ranch of Roger and Caroline Schrock, who have been providing sustainably-grown, all-natural, source-verified beef through Missouri's Best Beef Co-operative. We have been marketing MBB beef under the Ranchers' All-Natural label since we first bought the store.

At SFM, we're proud to add the Producers of the Ozarks Plateau to our growing family of farmers.

Todd Geisert Farms-Doin' It The Old-Fashioned Way

Yesterday, I had the time of my life when I joined a Beginning Farmers Tour and traveled to Washington, MO to tour Todd Geisert's farm.

The bank thermometer said 101 as we drove through Washington on the way to the farm, but we were all game for the "hayride" that Todd took us on to view his farm fields and pig operation.

Todd's pigs are really living the life of Reilly. They live in individual A-frames, the sows farrow in A-frames, with plenty of room to turn around, and there are lots of streams and mud wallows for cooling off.

Baby pigs can explore and socialize and are obviously used to humans, as you can see from the pictures.

The Geiserts have been raising heritage breeds of hogs since 1916.

Pigs are farrowed in individual A frame houses in fields that have had a crop harvested the previous season. Several generations of Geiserts can

be found in the fields, caring

for the pigs and harvesting the produce. The pigs are antibiotic free and no growth hormones are ever used.

After a fun and fascinating tour of the farm, Todd brought us back to the produce stand where we enjoyed two varieties of ice cold watermelon and some delicious lemonade.

Todd's meats are available at Sappington Farmers Market in the freezer section and the cured meat section. Try his delicious bratwursts and ham sausage.

Now available in the fresh meat section: Todd's pork chops and pork steaks. You'll taste the difference that sustainable farming makes.

I'm so grateful.....

It's been such a long time since I blogged. I kept waiting to get some pictures of our wonderful experiences at Farm Aid, and so far, I still don't have the pix. I hope to get some from my daughter over Thanksgiving, but in the meantime, I'll just talk about something else.

Just look at this awesome heap of local potatoes taken at the end of the summer. Such bounty!

The second picture is a feast of local foods prepared for the St. Louis magazine Best Doctors Event and all the food came from our store! There was lots more, too. What a magnificent spread!

It's been well over a year now since we Farm-to-Family members purchased Sappington Farmers Market. And what a year it's been! Not only have we turned the store around, but we have become deeply involved in HELP (Healthy Eating with Local Produce) as the distributors of farm fresh food to Maplewood Richmond Heights school system. From the number of requests we've been getting from other school districts, we can see that's just the beginning.

Randy Wood and I have also been helping to write legislation for Missouri legislators to remove barriers that make it difficult for schools to source local products. That project is going really well, and we're pretty sure you'll be hearing about Farm to Cafeteria legislation in the next session. That's something for everyone to be grateful for.

As we prepare for Thanksgiving this year, we are very aware of all the things we have to be grateful for. So many wonderful things are happening that we get up each day and just wait to see where we are led today! It's hard to believe that many of the wonderful friends we now have are people we only admired from afar just a year or two ago. I'm especially grateful for my wonderful friends who work so hard to ensure a fresh, healthy food system for everyone and a decent living for farmers.

I hope you'll come visit the store in the coming week and see some of the awesome Thanksgiving bargains we have-cranberries for $1.00 a bag, mushrooms for $1.00 a package, organic celery (Did you know celery is one of the most-sprayed crops?) for $1.99, beautiful sweet potatoes from Arkansas for .39 a pound. I could go on and on.

Unfortunately, local turkeys are NOT one of the wonderful things we have to offer. We had a major communication breakdown with our turkey farmer and we ended up turkey-less. Local turkey-less, that is. We have a great buy on Honeysuckle White turkeys at .59 per pound with a $50.00 purchase. I apologize profusely to anyone who was hoping to get fresh, local turkeys from us. I promise we'll have them next year-and lots of them in all sizes!

Watch for changes around the store as our intern from SLU orders in more local and organic products and helps us display the new items. We're excited to have Justine to help us for her practicum. We only have her for five weeks, but I'll bet she'll work wonders in that time. I'm grateful for the wonderful young people we get to work with, too. One thing is for sure, the future of food is in good hands with all the caring and knowledgeable young folks who are coming along.

Farm Aid's Coming

http://www.farmaid.org/site/c.qlI5IhNVJsE/b.2723605/k.C7B8/Concert.htm
It's almost here! The Farm Aid concert is in St. Louis this year and we can't wait. Gates open at 12:30 on Sunday, Oct. 4 at the Verizon Wireless Ampitheatre. Featured artists and spokespersons are Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews and Neil Young. Up-and-coming acts include Jason Mraz. If you haven't heard him, check him out on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYhrYHmUPn0
Watch for all of us Sappington Farmers Market people. We will be all over the place!
We provided the straw, mums, pumpkins, gourds and apples for the decorations.
We provided much of the food for backstage. And best of all, we will be there with our own Farmstand Booth selling delicious farm-raised food prepared by student interns from St. Louis University. There will be fresh local apples and caramel apples made with organic agave syrup and whole grain organic cookies and rice krispy bars. Try the deviled eggs from our egg supplier, Good Earth Eggs from Bonne Terre, MO. They are the only large-scale local producer left in the St. Louis area and they feed their hens a special blend of naturally-grown grains. For drinks, try the fresh local apple cider.
We'll also have a special interactive seed booth and Randy Wood and his brother Russ will have some fish for you to see in their aquaculture setup.
Look for me in the Press Event. I'm incredibly excited to be part of this awesome event! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD0DdRNjgUI

A Bountiful Harvest

This week, we at Sappington Farmers Market have been saying "This is what it's all about!"
We got homegrown, local FIGS this week and the very next day, Randy Wood picked up 1,000 pounds of organically grown local seedless table grapes. For the first time this summer, he actually had the reefer van full top to bottom and side to side with an assortment of local produce. I'm telling you, this is what Randy lives for. Because of the volume of our purchase, the grapes will only cost $1.50 per pound!! That's for local, uncertified organic grapes. Chuck isn't certified, but I know him, and I know he uses excellent organic growing methods.

So now we have lots and lots of tasty, just-picked yummy table grapes for sale. Chuck Hart, the farmer who grows these grapes, uses all organic methods, and you can see from the picture that his grapes really show their origins. It's hard to get grapes like that using conventional growing methods. The taste of the grapes is outstanding, and it's so reassuring to know that there are absolutely no pesticides on these grapes.

With school starting, the orders for fresh, safe, tasty local food have been pouring in from HELP (Healthy Eating with Local Produce) who serve Maplewood/Richmond Heights and Bistro Kids who serve several private schools in the STL area.
We are doing everything we can to link farmers with these great providers. That association makes the hard work worthwhile.

Hard to believe that summer's drawing to a close, but the supply of produce is nowhere near over. We have lots of delicious local food in store for us as the days shorten and cool. I'll keep you posted.

A Local Feast

For the past year, I've been marketing director of Sappington Farmers Market in St. Louis, MO. I'm also one of the farmers (in my case, retired farmer and farmer/advocate) who purchased the market.
We are the only farmer-owned grocery store that I know of. I'd love to hear from you if you know of others.
Our store is a 23,500-foot neighborhood-style grocery store that specializes in produce and in local meats, cheese and dairy products as well as local produce. It's my job to let people know about that in as many creative ways as I can think of.
For the past week, I've been hosting my family reunion in my little cottage by Current River. I've had guests from St. Louis; Memphis; Oak Ridge, TN; Clinton, TN; San Antonio, TX; and upstate New York as well as Escondido, CA. My brother and his family who live near me were also with us.
I asked each of them to bring foods local to their area and I provided a plethora of our local goods, some I had grown and many of which I purchased at Sappington Farmers Market.
What a feast we all had. We started the reunion off last Wednesday night with a potato salad made with local eggs (purchased from Sappington), potatoes I grew mixed in with potatoes I purchased from Sappington, celery and onions from my garden and homemade pickle relish.
The centerpiece of that meal was smoked brisket smoked at Sappington Market. The brisket came from Missouri's Best Beef Cooperative and is sold under the label Ranchers' All-Natural Beef (one of our owners is a member of the cooperative.) We also cooked 27 ears of corn fresh from Prouhet Farms (purchased at Sappington) and had cukes from the garden and Arkansas tomatoes. (Missouri tomatoes are in at Sappington as of July 1). For dessert we had cupcakes made from zucchini and lots of chocolate.
Another night we had make-your-own pizzas, with dishes all over the table filled with organically-grown garden-fresh produce. Cheese was local to Missouri and to the states from which our guests had traveled. We had some excellent New York cheeses.
The most interactive and very local dish was a gumbo we all worked together on. My brother cooked about 15 pounds of the Missouri pond-raised shrimp we sell at Sappington and we all pitched in with shelling and deveining. In the meantime, he was busy making a roux and adding the other ingredients. I felt like I was in Louisiana. Another night we had farm-fresh lamb from Tennessee. One of our travelers brought artisan beer from Tennessee much like the artisan beer from Charleville vineyard that we sell at Sappington. Fitz's Root Beer from St. Louis was the most popular drink over-all.
Throughout the reunion, we kept the table and counters filled with bowls of fresh-cut veggies and fruits. It was a tasty feast filled with health-giving antioxidants.
With twenty-five people eating for six days, we made a big dent in the local produce of several states and enjoyed each other's company immensely. Between meals we frolicked in Current River. Everyone felt great even though the temperature was hovering around 100 degrees most of the time. That fresh food keeps people feeling young and active.
I'm already planning the food for our next reunion. I feel certain it will be as good as this year's-and that's saying a lot.

Food Inc. Movie

www.youtube.com/watch2v=c2sga044_lc

Click on the above and type Food Inc. Trailer in the search engine. You will have several choices
to watch.

There was a free showing of the new movie, Food Inc. which was attended by a number of the owners of Sappington Farmers Market. They give it a thumbs up and recommend that anyone who is interested in learning more about the food they eat be sure and see this movie.

Eric Schlosser, (one of the contributors) who wrote Fast Food Nation, certainly has had an effect on me. After reading his book, I have never again eaten industrially-produced beef from Confined Animal Feeding Operations and slaughtered at the 12 (That's right-only 12 in the whole nation) large slaughterhouses that slaughter the majority of the beef that Americans eat. Only locally produced, source-verified, naturally and humanely-raised beef for me, please.

Another contributor, Michael Pollan, is becoming world-renowned for his lyrical writing on food topics (The Botany of Desire, The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food). He really puts his money where his mouth is, too, having completely changed his eating habits in recent years.

This movie is well-produced, will hold your attention, and introduces the public to many "well-kept secrets" about the food industry. Let's face it. Food is pretty basic. If the food we eat is not good for us, we should at least know about it so we can make other choices.

At Sappington Market, we are committed to providing safe, local, healthy choices. We work hard to search out alternatives without high fructose corn syrup, provide organically-grown foods without the high cost, and work with many local farmers to bring you the freshest food the fastest. Our farmer-ownership gives us a depth of knowledge about the food industry that is unique. The meat from MO. Best Beef Cooperative comes in as sides and is custom-cut by our talented meat-cutters. We can trace every little speck of ground beef back to the animal it came from. (Not thousands of animals, but one animal for each batch of ground beef). Not only are our owners farmers, but we are also food activists and healthy food advocates. We spend many hours a week working to ensure a safe, fair and affordable food system-one that is not dominated by large corporations.

I really love my job. Working with dedicated people, seeing how food is produced, getting the word out to consumers-it's a great fit for me. Besides, there couldn't be a better time to be involved in these issues. Movies like Food, Inc. help us tell the story so people like you can have better choices and be safe and healthy.

Slow Foods USA